vhalros t1_iuhtqbj wrote on October 31, 2022 at 1:22 PM

I am not sure if I am over-emphasizing the "traffic" part of your post, but the best way to avoid it is to live somewhere you don't have to drive.

Of the cities you specifically mentioned, only Burlington meets the time-to-Boston criteria you specified, at least if there is any appreciable amount of traffic. Public transit options in Burlington basically do not exist, so you would be driving always. I am not sure where you plan to be commuting to, but you are going to hate life if you try commuting from the Worcester/its suburbs to Boston on a daily basis.

Here is a rough map of places that are a 45 minute drive to Charles/MGH in rush hour (just a point I picked in Boston): https://app.traveltime.com/search/0-lng=-71.07145&0-tt=45&0-mode=driving&0-time=a1668002455030&0-title=Charles%2FMGH%2C%20Cambridge%20Street%2C%20Beacon%20Hill%2C%20Boston%2C%20Suffolk%20County%2C%20Massachusetts%2C%2002114%2C%20United%20States&0-lat=42.36121. I'd say that is kind of optimistic though, and the outer fringes would not get you that travel time very reliably.

newbl00d21 OP t1_iuhva7l wrote on October 31, 2022 at 1:35 PM

We’re not city people per se (I.e. don’t want to spend a lot of time IN the city) and we’re trying for jobs NOT in Boston proper so hopefully no major issues. We don’t mind driving a bit though. We’d probably only go into Boston once a month. It’s more so that in our experience if there isn’t a big city close to where you live the pace of life and people are just not as sharp or quick as we’re used to (we’ve both grown up around NYC, DC, Philly and Providence). Hopefully that makes sense

I spent 10 years on Long Island as well so I don’t mind some traffic but I don’t want that level of traffic every day. But again my hope is that if I’m not driving actually into Boston it won’t be terrible

RogueInteger t1_iuhzkma wrote on October 31, 2022 at 2:07 PM

There's lots of metro type of hubs in different places. For example Quincy has tons of bars and restaurants and you could take the red line and be at MGH in 25 minutes on the subway. Same could be said for Watertown and Newburyport.

vhalros t1_iuhviz8 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 1:37 PM

Ah; I have misinterpreted your criteria. If you only plan to go once a month, those places are all probably fine. It still matters a lot where you are commuting to though.